From the Dock

Cue Credits

2007-04-26T17:39:00.000-07:00

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Henry David Thoreau

This is the last entry of the Mistral blog, officially closing out the experiment known as the Mistral Experience Project.

Here are a few things I learned:

A big wooden boat is a lot of work. Wait, I knew that even before I spent that first weekend two years ago sanding down old varnish and fingertips.
A big boat channels wind and parts water. The right big boat will channel people to work and hang out together and occasionally get out in the fresh air.
A big, well maintained boat, smartly designed and sturdily built, will leap to life like a genie from a lamp well into its later years.
The right boat is a maker and keeper of stories – from epic races in the Strait of Juan de Fuca to sterling summer weekends running down Puget Sound under a blue-and-white spinnaker. Few things will unite the past, the present and one's place so beautifully.

Mistral was all that.

The following people had hands big and small in the making of the Mistral Experience Project.

Ben Seaborn, the Blanchard Boat Co., Bill Baillargeon, Dick Wagner, Betsy Davis, Jake Beattie, Heron Scott, Edel O’Connor, Greg Reed, Vern Velez, Patrick Gould, Beth DeWeese, Kemp Jones, Brooke Marjamaa, Michael Warner, Erik Nielsen, Eric Nissen, Dave Derse, Martin Feldman, Aaron Barnett, the Pirate crew, Brian Bennett, Alexandra Kruse, Forest Payne, Passion Julinsey, Andy Brown, Dave Erskine, Suzy Brunzell, Paula Weir, Sam Johnson, Bill Van Vlack, Steve Kinnaman, Matt Murphy, Tom Jackson, Sandi Fleming, Scott Moore, Susanna Williams, Harley Soltes, the Duck Dodge Committee, Seaview East, Archie McPhee’s, KEXP, Pat’s Marine Engine, CSR Marine, Sterling, the other Beth, Bridget, Jeremy and Lily, the dog.

Thanks to you all!

Eric

First Things First

2007-03-20T16:19:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Mistral blog! We're getting a new wave of traffic after yours truly penned a review of boating blogs for WoodenBoat and word of the Mistral presence started rattling around the resonant hull of the blogosphere.
Newcomers to said site will notice there has not been much blogging here of late. However, we might point out that the latest chapter of the Mistral saga took first place in the annual contest of Boating Writers International, the main organization for boating writers. The story, written by the Mistral steward in his capacity as boating columnist for the Seattle Times, won in the ever-sexy category of boat/engine care and maintenance. “What a surprising treat!" wrote one judge. "Sorensen [the Mistral steward, who generally hides behind euphemisms like "Captain," "Skipper" and "Anker"] reveals passion and a sense of grand duty in a topic normally reserved for bone-dry writing.”

Some boats surf

2007-01-18T22:57:00.001-08:00

Tillerman over at Proper Course has this cool picture of a surfing laser, courtesy of caribwind.com.

A New To-do List

2007-01-14T08:37:00.001-08:00

The recent Seattle Times story about Mistral took me only a few hours to write, the words just flying off my fingers. But in retrospect, it really took about 17 months, the time I had spent as a main character in the Mistral narrative. I paused recently to catalog what I got done. Here's the list:

Mast scraped and varnished
Mast step drain hole drilled
Head overhauled (but not used and currently not connected)
Toilet seat reglued and varnished
Portapotty installed
Sink faucet replaced
Full cover stitched, patched and cleaned
hatch doors stripped and varnished
Hand rails, hatch, cap rail and house varnished
Carburetor overhauled; parts replaced from carb kit
Engine coil replaced
Zinc changed
Bottom paint, summer ‘06
Leak in bow corked and caulked
Bottom paint
Topsides paint
Deck repainted and non-skidded
Pelican hooks installed on lifelines
Mast boot replaced with both tape and new Sunbrella
Mold washed from ceiling
Packing gland restuffed with Teflon
Spinnaker topping lift replaced
Recast and replaced bronze thumb screws on shifter plate and spinnaker sheet blocks

Remaining needs:

Shore up binocular box
Replace autolift box
Fix leak around exhaust manifold, probably in gasket
Chase leak near starboard portlight in forepeak
Replace cracked veneer in starboard bulkhead
Replace fuel tanks and lines or cut holes and hand clean
Refurbish cockpit
Countersink, screw and bung assorted screw holes in cockpit teak
Overhaul alcohol stove
Strip and varnish spinnaker pole
Fix whisker pole
Check prop shaft alignment
Change oil and transmission fluid
Overhaul manual bilge pump
Chase further leaking from bow, with trickle visible in bilge
Paint top of house
Check top of mast for chafing from halyards; affix small chafing blocks
Monitor jib winches
Patch tear on starboard side of cover

Welcome to the Neighborhood

2006-12-26T11:17:00.000-08:00

Bill Van Vlack and Stephanie Kavanaugh have brought the doings of their Seaborn sloop Nautilus to the blogosphere. You can find them at svnautilus.blogspot.com. Nautilus is close kin to Mistral, built two years later, in 1941, at the Blanchard yard and just four feet longer. Bill has Nautilus hauled out on Guemes Island and plans to document an ongoing refit for all to see.

On the 40th Day, Mistral Sailed

2006-12-17T20:11:00.000-08:00

Sail No. 9030 got to run through a few paces this Sunday in a rare winter moment of open sky, no rain and just a touch of wind.

Attention to Detail

2006-11-12T09:46:00.000-08:00

The Northwest R/C Ship Modelers were on the dock at The Center for Wooden Boats last weekend for one of their fun floats.

The Official Mistral Muffin

2006-11-10T17:05:00.000-08:00

We first encountered the official Mistral muffin long before encountering Mistral. It was, fittingly, at The Center for Wooden Boats, in 2001, as ten families were building ten Union Bay skiffs next door in the Armory. At the time, a group of recovering alcoholics that will remain anonymous was meeting regularly in the Center gallery. Afterwards, they would leave behind pastries and other treats in that way the Center can sometimes be like a vast socialist horn of plenty, at least where galley carbohydrates are concerned.

A box of goods, including several Morning Glory muffins, appeared at the Armory. They were a complete food – five servings of fruit and vegetable per muffin, a generous amount of fat and a dose of starch to hold it all together. Creamed coffee provided the protein.

We’ve since experimented with various web-based recipes, most of which are heavy on the grated carrot, and bought a fair amount from places like Louisa’s on Eastlake and Macrina in Belltown. A bag of MGMs fueled the Mistral crew on the first voyage to Port Townsend last year.

This morning, the Mistral skipper was thinking of laying into a pineapple ripening in the Official Mistral Support Galley and it occurred to him that a good shot of chopped pineapple would be nice in a batch of muffins. By coincidence, a friend emailed the recipe for the Macrina Morning Glory muffin.

A batch is now cooling in the OMSG. Feel free to try making your own.

* 1/2 cup seedless raisins

* 1/3 cup walnut halves

* 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

* 1/2 cup granulated sugar

* 2 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon

* 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

* 1/4 teaspoon salt

* 1 medium carrot, grated

* 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and grated

* 3/4 cup chopped pineapple

* 3 eggs

* 1/4 cup canola oil

* 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

* 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

* 1/2 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut

* 1/3 cup coarse raw sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Brush the insides of a muffin tin with canola oil.

2. Place raisins in a small bowl and cover with hot tap water. Let sit for 10 minutes while raisins plump, then drain and squeeze out excess liquid with your hands. Set aside. Place walnuts on a rimmed baking sheet and toast until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Let cool, then chop coarsely and set aside.

3. Sift flour, granulated sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl. Mix gently with a wooden spoon and set aside. In a separate medium bowl, combine raisins, walnuts, carrot, apple, pineapple, eggs, canola oil, melted butter, lemon juice, vanilla extract, and coconut, and mix with a wooden spoon until combined. Add dry ingredients and continue stirring just until all the dry ingredients are moistened. It's important not to overmix.

4. Scoop batter into oiled muffin tin, filling the cups to the top. Sprinkle coarse raw sugar on tops of muffins and bake on the center rack of the oven for 40 to 45 minutes. The finished muffins will be deep brown. Let cool for 20 minutes, then slide a fork down the side of each muffin and gently lift it from the pan.

Puget Sound to Port

2006-11-06T11:40:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the delay in posting. It's been a while as we were waiting to see the results from the Rum Run. They haven't been posted yet but it's clear from the latest 48 Degrees North that Mistral finished out of the money.
For those of you waiting with bated breath to see what would happen to the Mistral engine, a new coil and regapped spark plugs recommended by Pat's Marine Engine did the trick. Mistral motored out and back to Shilshole Bay without a skipped beat or sputter. Pictured above is Puget Sound as seen from a port deadlight. Note the classic Blanchard shape. Mistral is now largely under cover and snugly enduring record rains.

The Last Column of the Season

2006-10-23T13:14:00.000-07:00

In the northeastern United States, it's easy to see the end of boating season. Ice forms on the edge of ponds, and the next thing you know, it's Labor Day.

Out here, the forecast takes only a slight turn, from 50 degrees and sunny to 50 degrees and sun breaks. The boating season doesn't really have to end, so we don't have to bother to make note of it.

But note we did, in the last Seattle Times boating column of the year.

Boating is winding down but it's still possible to get out on free Sunday afternoon sails, like the one pictured above, at the Center for Wooden Boats.

The Belly of the Beast

2006-10-08T20:16:00.000-07:00

Mistral saw a nice spurt of work today in just a few hours -- a coat of varnish on the house, the last two screws on the pulpit/lifelines, and the removal of the Mistral carburetor. The current thinking is the carburetor is the chief source of woe for Mistral's finicky engine. The spark plugs blacken quickly, a possible sign of the engine running too rich, perhaps because a clogged jet or dirty air intake isn't allowing enough air in. Yes, this is a very complicated case, lotta ins, lotta outs. Michael will clean and rebuild the carburetor and we'll find out. The goal is to do this in two weeks, now 12 days, so we can motor down the ship canal for the Duck Dodge's last hurrah, the Rum Run, on Oct. 21.

Three Blanchards Win the Blanchard

2006-10-02T22:38:00.000-07:00

It turns out there were three Blanchards that took the top three spots of the Blanchard regatta's large boat class this weekend: Eleanora, Jim Llewellyn's Solace and Mistral. Both Eleanora and Solace are Blanchard Senior Knockabouts. Mistral, the biggest of the three, was built in the Blanchard yard. All three feature the distinctive Blanchard portlights, rectangular with a rounded top. Just to keep things jumping, we have a picture of the winning boat from the Dragon division. This being a blog and not journalism, the name of the boat and skipper will have to wait.

Blanchard Wins Blanchard

2006-10-01T19:31:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the S/V Eleanora, winner of this year's Norm Blanchard Wood Regatta on South Lake Union. That's Chris Butler eyeing the jib. He and Courtney Bartlett brought Eleanora back from near death. Mistral, a fellow Blanchard, came in third among the large boats after a great afternoon of sailing that saw little need for the spinnaker and a minimum of tacking, the speed killer on the boat's full keel. It was a good weekend, again. Thanks to the crew, which included two newcomers in Sparrow and Cary. Next weekend will see a work Sunday, details of which will follow.

Running on a Sunset

2006-09-30T19:31:00.000-07:00

The Mistral crew has been coaxing a few more nanoknots on the GPS lately with the help of the wooden boathook. It came into play several times today on the short course around Lake Union, where Mistral is racing in the Norm Blanchard Regatta. (That's Michael Warner as we approached Shilshole on the sail back from the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival.)
Tomorrow we will have a spinnaker crew on board so the hook will only come out for quick bursts of downwind speed, or something like that. The wind is pretty light this weekend. Note to crew: race start is 11, not noon, as previously broadcast. Mistral leaves the dock at 10.

Photographic Proof: She Floats

2006-09-28T22:01:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy of Harley Soltes
At last, we got a picture of Mistral underway.
It took an article in the Seattle Times, but we managed to get photographer Harley Soltes in a chase boat during the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival schooner challenge. Mistral defended last year's cup win over Sparkle and lost, but it made for a good story and even better pictures. The story ran on the cover of Northwest Weekend and is available online.
BLANCHARD RACE UPDATE: Mistral will be racing in the Blanchard Regatta this weekend at the Center for Wooden Boats. From 8 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday is the crew breakfast, followed at 9 by a race seminar. The skipper's meeting is at 10:30 and the race is at 11. There is a dinner at 7 p.m. Another day of racing will commence Sunday at noon. Crew has been summoned for both races -- you know who you are -- but we aren't playing for a lot of marbles in this one so feel free to contact the skipper if you're interested.

Welcome Once Again

2006-09-27T21:10:00.000-07:00

This might be a new occasion to welcome people to the Mistral blog. By the time most of you read this, the latest chapter of the Mistral saga will be featured in the Seattle Times' Northwest Weekend and scores of eager readers will be flocking to this space to hear more. We'll try not to disappoint, at least not right away.
After the Port Townsend odyssey, the Mistral crew has been laying a bit low. Things will get moving this weekend with the Blanchard regatta, a race in honor of Mistral's maker. We'll be short-handed on Saturday. If you have a modicum of experience and would like to haul a line or two, chime in at svwhim@yahoo.com. Sunday should have a full boat.
Oh, the picture above. It isn't Mistral but a cousin, the Seaborn-designed Sierra, which served as the template for the Thunderbird. That's Martin Feldman preparing to go out with Lily panting.

A Boat Can Be Any Color You Like, As Long As It's White, Unless It's A T-bird

2006-09-18T12:47:00.000-07:00

It's time to start uploading some of the pictures from Mistral's Lost Weekend in Port Townsend. Coming into the bay, we picked up The Center for Wooden Boats Thunderbird. It's something of a sister ship to Mistral, designed by Ben Seaborn and skippered by Kemp Jones, Mistral's driver and lead advisor.

A Ragged Wooden Boat Regatta

2006-09-12T20:20:00.000-07:00

Photo Courtesy of Edel O'Connor
Mistral, second from the front, catches a tug from Jake Beattie on the way to the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. This was easily the most wild and eventful week of Mistral's tenure at the Center for Wooden Boats, starting with the engine breakdown on the way out the ship canal to Shilshole. Fortunately, we had made prior backup arrangements with Jake, who met us at the dock and took us north with the ebb Friday morning. Along the way we picked up Eleanora, the Blanchard Senior knockabout, and the Friendship sloop Amie. More later about Mistral's defense of the Port Townsend Challenge Cup.

This Just In...

2006-09-05T23:02:00.000-07:00

Mistral took first place tonight in the third start of the Duck Dodge. We'd show you a picture of the gold duck but, well, you'll just have to take our word for it. Kemp Jones drove, Erik Nielsen and Brooke worked the foredeck and Michael handled the main. We had a gem of a spinnaker run between Aurora and the AGC mark. It was all a great practice run for this Saturday's Cup defense.

Committee Re-Appreciation Night aka.Last Duck Dodge

2006-09-04T21:34:00.000-07:00

Mistral will once again be out in the Duck Dodge tonight in one last tune-up before Saturday's race at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. Pictured above is one of the starts from last week. Tonight should be clearer with some sort of wind out of the north. It's also the last regular Duck Dodge of the year, to be followed by the Rum Run on Oct. 21.

Notice to Mistralites and Would-be Mistralites

2006-09-02T10:51:00.000-07:00

If you haven’t yet committed to Dave at the Gorge or Neko at Bumbershoot or some other such thing, you’re welcome to haul on halyards during an afternoon cruise on Mistral Sunday. David Derse and I want to test the engine so we can be confident on the way to Port Townsend next weekend. In the process, we aim to shoot the Montlake Cut and raise sails on Lake Washington. Engine and wind willing, and the wind has been very accommodating lately, we’ll head for the north end of the lake. We have a swim ladder so we could conceivable heave to or anchor and take a dip. We’ll have snacks and drinks on board and a brand new Porta Potty that needs, er, christening. RSVP to svwhim@yahoo.com, or on the day of, 206-799-9186.

We start getting ready at 12:30 p.m. and shove off at 1.

Boating Column: Hefty 200-year-old tome carries weight today

2006-09-01T16:17:00.000-07:00

How I spent my summer vacation: reading a chest-crushing tome written more than 200 years ago by the self-taught mathematician Nathaniel Bowditch. If it's not too late, you too might slip "The American Practical Navigator: An Epitome of Navigation" onto your summer reading list.
You can even read it on a laptop, which I did after downloading it free almost two winters ago.
A true classic, Bowditch reads like it was written only recently, in part because the U.S. government has held its copyright since 1867 and continually brings it up to date with developments like satellite navigation, which didn't exist when Bowditch was at the helm.
Like few other books, it creates the feeling that you are one step closer to the big cruise, the long-dreamt trip in which you leave behind those day trips on Lake Washington and, at last, run away to sea.

Read the complete column in the Seattle Times.

It's A Puffin'!

2006-08-31T08:15:00.000-07:00

The Puffin, The Center for Wooden Boats' 100-year-old steam launch, had a shakedown cruise yesterday after a thorough renovation.

It's A Duck!

2006-08-30T05:44:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Ever Capable Driver Kemp and a crack crew of Brooke, Michael, the Erics, Sterling, Beth, Bridget and Jeremy. This is Mistral's first Duck of the year and second overall.

Good Wind Tonight

2006-08-29T08:05:00.000-07:00

It looks like Mistral should have good wind in the Duck Dodge tonight.

Three of the World's Youngest Boats

2006-08-28T09:22:00.000-07:00

With a non-demoninational benediction and a sprig of greenery in the bow, the better to return landward, three new Union Bay skiffs were wetted in Lake Union yesterday. The skiffs, suitable for both sailing and rowing, not to mention fishing, crabbing, eating lunch, sanding and painting, are part of The Center for Wooden Boats family boatbuilding program. They were built in four days.

The Last Wet Paint Sign for Some Time

2006-08-27T19:54:00.000-07:00

When doesn't this boat have wet paint? The Mistral deck got a coat of quicky non-skid, lest the crack crew go flying just when things got fun, leaning and wet. There are rumors of some varnishing and the engine is still something to keep one up at night, but it looks like Mistral's maintenance is about done for a while. This means we're getting into a sweet spot of sailing. Duck Dodge Tuesday. Possible Lake Washington sail Saturday to a) try to break the engine/see if it will make it to Port Townsend and b) tune up for racing in Port Townsend.

Winner of the Seaview East Carhartt's Fashion Show

2006-08-23T13:25:00.000-07:00

Name the wearer and win a prize.

Lighting the way around the Sound

2006-08-22T08:55:00.000-07:00

Here's Dave Frazeur, a charming Coast Guard auxiliary and retired sailor who's CV includes the Trans-Pac race. He played host one recent morning to a tour I did of the lighthouses around Puget Sound, featured last week in the Seattle Times. Dave is standing by the Fresnel lens of the lighthouse at Fort Worden near Port Townsend.

Home At Last

2006-08-21T20:09:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple pictures of the newly minted Mistral. After a week on the hard, we splashed the boat and did a whirl of work to get her safely down the ship canal to The Center for Wooden Boats.
Highlights:
-- The bilge quickly filled with water and the pump didn't work. I had to prime the pump a few times by putting it in a bucket of water up high. How do you spell relief? G-u-r-g-l-e, as in the gurgle of a pumping bilge pump.
-- The propeller shaft got hot after only 100 yards and a paste came out of the stuffing box. Erik Nielsen and I tied to a pier and I started getting ready to overhaul it on the fly but then realized it was dripping water, a sign that it just needed to get a little wet to stay cool.
-- The Center had hardly any dock space so we risked losing new, soft paint to a couple chafing fenders. Greg Reed, dockmeister and soon-to-be Mistral haberdasher, cleared the way for the lovely and paint-protecting arrangement above.
Thanks to Erik Nielsen for piping up to help this morning and putting up with the nervous and recalcitrant skipper. Thanks too to the Seaview East Boat Yard. Ditto to Dave Erskine, Mistral mechanic extraordinaire, who tweaked the idle when we got back and hopefully solved our fouling plugs problem.
It's clear sailing, with some semi-gloss polyurethane thrown in for looks, from here on in. Duck Dodge Tuesday night

2006-08-21T19:51:00.000-07:00

At last, the last thing to be painted

2006-08-20T14:55:00.000-07:00

That would be a freshly painted boot stripe, the last major task of this week's haulout. We splash at 11 a.m. tomorrow and sail in the Duck Dodge Tuesday.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a Blanchard

2006-08-18T21:35:00.000-07:00

Mistral was hauled out in good company. Sharing the hard at the Seaview East boat yard were two Blanchard Junior Knockabouts. The one above is getting a final stroke of bottom paint before being splashed and towed back to The Center for Wooden Boats. Heron Scott, the boots to the left, reports the two boats were rented the moment they hit the dock.

Wanted: One Sign Painter

2006-08-18T21:09:00.000-07:00

A new coat of topsides paint has Mistral shining like a new dime but the ever-lovely transom had to be left alone until we found a sign painter who could recreate that gold lettering. Painters willing to work at non-profit rates should feel free to contact us with a note in the comment box.

Blonde, Ale

2006-08-17T21:52:00.000-07:00

Theory: Given a choice between free gifts and free beer, people will go for free beer.
Brooke Marjamaa, Mistral race personnel manager and chief of festival logistics, was just one of a bunch of people who turned out for the boat's first-in-an-occasional beer-inspired work parties. That would be bottom paint she is so eagerly sampling with a chip brush. The day's summary is impressive: topside painted, bottom painted, most of the tape removed, two Pagliacci pizzas consumed. All that's left is a boot stripe, probably tomorrow, and a splash, probably Monday. The boat really looks magnificent. If we had Lay-Z-Boys, we would have sat and stared at Mistral as if she were a TV. Instead, we stood and stared.

Free Beer!

2006-08-16T19:47:00.000-07:00

That's Heron Scott tearing into the mysterious bow leak that last year had a small river running down the Mistral sole when seriously underway. Not long after this picture was taken we unearthed a sizeable gap in the stem and fair amount of wet caulking, all since repaired.
Oh yeah, the free beer. The Experience Mistral Project's promotions department was so smitten by the success of the Free Gifts! promotion that it is sponsoring a Free Beer! night at the Seaview East haulout site tomorrow, Thursday. (A map will open when you click the Seaview East link.) This will take place when most people are knocking off work for the day. Mistral activities will likely continue apace, so wear clothes that will only be improved with bottom paint.
Also on tomorrow's docket: a bit of sanding and a touch of priming, a visit to Fisheries, taping and painting the topsides with semi-gloss white enamel, buying beer and ice, ordering pizza, then slathering bottom paint wherever that's supposed to go.

Three Danes and a Baby

2006-08-15T21:14:00.000-07:00

And a new low for Mistral headlines.
Drawn by the Scandinavian black hole that is Ballard, the entire three-person work crew for Mistral Tuesday was made up of Eric/ks of Danish descent. Pictured, from left: Erik Nielsen and Eric Nissen. Eric Sorensen is behind the camera.

Free Gifts!

2006-08-15T20:17:00.000-07:00

A longish entry ensues. Cut to the penultimate paragraph should you want to make haste to the chase.
The promotions staff in the Experience Mistral Project's marketing department has been pushing to "incentivize" (their term) the Mistral volunteer effort but have faced resistence from the Department of Cultural Standards, a backroom committee that aims to preserve the Mistral ethos of volunteerism and non-commercial camaraderie. As the DCS argument goes, incentivizing the volunteer effort would compromise the integrity of the program and lead to complaints of "selling out" (their term).
Promotions countered that incentives would be a sign of the Project maturing, and we would see this when we heard complaints like this: "Mistral is just not the same now that you can't scrape and varnish all winter and not even go sailing."
The promotions argument has carried the day in this evening's marathon meeting of the Executive Committee, which is all so much bureaucratic hoopla save for one thing -- the advent of free Mistral stuff!
The top volunteers in this week's haulout extravaganza, judged by hours spent and general attitude, will receive cool Mistral crap not unlike the maritime geegaws garnishing the dash of the Mistral support vehicle, pictured above. Stay tuned for word on the upcoming Mistral t-shirt promotion!
Meanwhile, the haulout continues. Today saw sanding of the topsides and priming of the patched spots. Tomorrow will be an all-hands effort of prepping the bottom for speed and hard bottom paint. Topside painting is also possible. The skipper will be there early, like, 8 a.m., and will offer lots of leadership in anything needed until 2 p.m., when he has to drive his daughter to soccer.

2006-08-14T18:51:00.000-07:00

On the Hard, Haulout Day, Part Two

2006-08-14T18:12:00.000-07:00

Mistral came out of the water without incident and only a couple surprises -- a huge gouge below the starboard waterline and a seven-sixteenths inch gap in the stem right at the waterline. The gouge came while Center for Wooden Boat staffers were moving some docks. The gap in the stem is the likely cause of a gush of water that liked to run down the sole whenever the boat got a serious bow wave going. We've sanded and filled the gash. Heron has judiciously filled the bow gap and corked the damp seams around it. We've also faired and filled lots of other dings and chips.
Remaining tasks:
-- Tuesday: sand the filled spots and prime. Sand the rest of the hull. Sweetnail(v.?) holes in the stem for a bronze band we're replacing.
-- Wednesday: paint the topsides.
-- Thursday: bottom paint.
Random tasks for volunteers who don't have sandpaper or paint brushes: replace the prop zinc, repack the stuffing box.
Win a lunch with the Mistral skipper! This for the crew who cleans and oils the bilge.
Contribute to the Mistral endowment! We need a few hundred dollars for hard bottom paint, which can be sanded to make the boat more competitive. Otherwise we use the surplus soft bottom paint kept at the Center. This boat needs your contributions to go fast.

Haulout -- Day One

2006-08-14T07:26:00.000-07:00

In spite of a rough-running engine, the S/V Mistral cleared a gauntlet of two bridge openings yesterday and moored at the Seaview East boatyard. The craft gets hauled out today at 9 a.m., followed by all sorts of madcap hilarity -- power washing, fairing of the hull, possible bottom paint. Feel free to drop in and lend a hand. Click the link for the address. For more info, call 206-799-9186.

A Big Week

2006-08-13T08:25:00.000-07:00

Mistral will probably go out this afternoon as the wind is expected to come out of the north. Likely sail times are 2 and 3. This will be the start of a busy week as at the end of the day we will motor over to Ballard for a haulout. Crew are welcome on all outings.

From the Pond

2006-07-31T21:17:00.000-07:00

Novon's blog has some nice images from the Wooden Boat Festival. This is one of the Pirate pond boats, which are 1/12th-scale versions of the R boat designed by Ted Geary to stimulate interest in woodworking. Two or three are routinely sailing around the makeshift pond north of the Center for Wooden Boats boathouse

Experience the Craft

2006-07-30T22:07:00.000-07:00

The Mistral effort is clicking on all four Atomic cylinders, especially when one considers the boat is being worked on far more than she is being sailed. OK, perhaps the work-to-play ratio is too high. We'll have to fix that with some industrious sailing in late August and moments beyond. But for now, there's more work and a good likelihood it will get done.
For those checking in here to see what you might do, or for those of you who just like to read the ledger of human suffering, here are some upcoming tasks:
-- Wash well in advance of deck painting. This could involve a hands-and-knees effort with a sponge and occasional scrubby, particularly where dirt is collecting in the corners and a bit o' green is under the cap rail.
-- Sand and fill with liquid boat (two-part epoxy, filler) the cracks and chips on the deck. One might also do the same for some of the larger cleat dings and nicks on the hull.
-- Tape, lightly sand (with fine paper), tack and varnish trim on the hatches, hand rails and window trim.
-- Replace the exhaust manifold gasket on the engine.
-- Change the oil and transmission fluid.
-- Tape (on Aug. 12 or 13) on sides of deck and around deck fittings for coat of paint with grippy stuff mixed in.
Reminder: We haul out on Aug. 14 for bottom and topsides painting.

Big Day on the Lifelines

2006-07-30T21:44:00.000-07:00

Mistral had what may be the biggest work day yet today. Shown from left, Dave Derse, Erik Nielsen and Michael Warner, along with the unpictured Brooke Marjamaa and Martin Feldman, were the leaders in a group that put in a total of 35 hours on the boat. Warning: a quick technical list of what got done follows. Skip a paragraph or read for understanding.
We: rewired the stern light in the pushpit; epoxied and clamped several spots of delaminated deck canvas; rebedded the bow pulpit and the last of the lifeline stanchions; pulled the spinnaker blocks and installed new thumbscrews on the gates, courtesy of bronze-meister Sam Johnson; replaced a broken thumbscrew on the shifter cover in the cockpit; started tightening a loose belt on the Atomic 4's alternator.
We also began laying plans for a few Duck Dodges and a grand tour to Port Townsend for the Wooden Boat Festival, Sept. 8-10.

A Dragon Here, A Dragon There

2006-07-29T21:38:00.000-07:00

The Dragon sailboat above took an inaugural voyage from its new home at The Center for Wooden Boats today and used a light westerly to slip back down the boathouse channel and dock without incident. The boat, a classic Norwegian design and former Olympic class, is a recent Center acquisition. It is not to be confused with the longer Dragon paddle boats featured in the most recent and shamelessly plugged Seattle Times boating column. There, I hyperlinked it and I'm glad.

Lily meets Seattle's top dog pol

2006-07-27T20:30:00.000-07:00

Seattle City Council member Jan Drago was on the docks the other day and paused to grip and grin with Mistral volunteer Lily. Issue de jour: the Magnuson off-leash area, which Drago helped create and which Lily had visited just that morning.

Mistral minus lifelines

2006-07-27T17:33:00.000-07:00

Here's a rare look at Mistral without lifelines to mar the view of the house. It's tempting to plug all the screw holes, get rid of the bow and stern pulpits and keep the boat this way, like Pirate there in the background. But people do go out on the boat quite a bit and they're aren't all used to being on a sailboat and, hey, it would be easy to fall off.
The lifelines are down while we rebed the stanchions holding them up and fix several screw holes that were stripped out. These are prime spots in which dirt and water can conspire to build a little ecosystem of deck rot.
We're gunning to have the lifelines back up by day's end Sunday. Help is welcome.

Mark Your Calendar

2006-07-25T15:35:00.000-07:00

Crack Boatwright Heron Scott today booked Mistral and a fleet of smaller Center boats for a haulout Aug. 14, a Monday, at Seaview East. We -- that being the Mistral crew and anyone else who cares to show up -- will aim to do a bit of caulking, repack the stuffing box and apply new bottom and topsides paint in five days. There will be beverages and occasional high-carbohydrate snacks.
Meanwhile, I'm planning to rebed the lifeline stantions. Do contain your excitement. It's a two-day task as some holes will need to be plugged and redrilled. Pardon the mess during construction. I'll start the morning of July 26.

Work Posting

2006-07-24T22:19:00.000-07:00

I'll be down at the boat Tuesday, July 25, starting at 11:30 to do odds and ends. Feel free to drop by, say hello, grab a task or talk me into going out on the water.

A boat of a different sort, and a note on plans

2006-07-20T12:11:00.000-07:00

The Mistral leadership took some time off recently to venture down the Aichilik River in Alaska's celebrated Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. That's it above, set against the Brooks Range.
Now, an update for those looking to sail, sand and other stuff:
-- A squad of Capable Volunteers varnished the Mistral house recently. It's looking killer.
-- Capable Crew Brooke plans to be on hand Sunday to scrub the big boat cover. For those of you who like to see progress in tedium (scrapping barnicles, cutting a lawn, popping bubble wrap) this is the job for you. Whole tracts of algae disappear, leaving like-new Sunbrella. Good times. The skipper will be sweating out a friend's wedding in the balmy Methow Valley.
-- A sail during the July 25 Dodging of the Duck is pretty certain. We'll leave The Center dock at 6 p.m.
-- The skipper is on hand the following weekend. Because he (and trust me, I'll soon stop writing in the third-person but on my own terms) will be travelling with his family for the following two weeks, a good dose of Mistral activity will be in store. If crew pipes up, I'd like to run a rapid succession of public sails on Sunday, yo-yoing out of the dock until we have vertigo. Crew is required. But wind willing, it sure would be nice to air this baby out on the Sound or Lake Washington.
-- In mid-August, watch for a haulout. This will call for many hands to scrape and apply paints bottom and topsides. We don't want this to become the interminable haulout from hell. It dries out the boat and keeps us from sailing.
-- Haulout willing, we sail for Victoria. If not, we sail for Port Townsend.

From the Column: Learning to Sail

2006-07-20T12:06:00.000-07:00

The Mistral skipper's most recent Seattle Times boating column is about learning to sail, with Rory Petrilli (above) kindly offering to share her reflections. At least that's what you get after a wayfaring lede that takes in E.B. White, his son Joel, small boats and the subject of fear.

2006-06-13T10:58:00.000-07:00

Mistral shows off her old-school spinnaker on a recent run down Lake Union.

A Gardener's Delight

2006-06-13T09:04:00.000-07:00

Joe Follansbee over at the Maritime Heritage Network blog kindly points out that The Center for Wooden Boats has a bunch of boats for sale. Not on the Center site, but on Ebay, is this spectacular William Garden pilothouse sloop. $10,000 of the sale goes towards the Center.

In kayak, you really are one with the water

2006-06-08T08:26:00.000-07:00

The skipper of the S/V Mistral scaled down for a day and ventured out to Chuckanut Bay with the Puget Sound Paddlers Network. Read all about it in the Seattle Times.
Here's Rembrandt Smith of Anacortes photographing one of the fossilized palm trees on the shore.

Waiting for the Bridge

2006-06-07T12:18:00.000-07:00

The S/V Pirate strikes a pose in the Montlake Cut while waiting for the tender to come back with the tow rope.

2006-06-04T20:31:00.000-07:00

Mistral is sporting a new mast. Now all we need is a boom, and tuned rigging, and sails.

Mast Step in View

2006-06-03T08:19:00.000-07:00

Here's Pete Dorsey, a rigger for CSR Marine, guiding the mast towards its rightful home.

Ocian in view! O! The joy!

2006-06-03T08:07:00.000-07:00

We ended up using one coin for good luck in the Mistral mast step. After searching far and wide on my dresser I found the newly minted Jefferson nickel featuring the Pacific Ocean, where Mistral twice won the Swiftsure Yacht Race. After so much scraping and varnishing, actually stepping the mast brought great joy in camp, to use the Lewis and Clark expression.

Perhaps we'll put two coins in the mast step for extra luck

2006-06-01T20:55:00.000-07:00

Moments ago, the Mistral skipper dispatched the following to the merry band of Mistral volunteers:

Mistralites,
It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for, well, actually we’ve all been waiting for the moment we turn off the engine and watch Mistral sail.
But anyway, the other moment is the stepping of the Mistral mast and it’s slated to go down tomorrow, Friday, at 3 p.m. Anyone wishing to take part in the festivities is welcome. We will shove off from the Center dock around 2:30.
If all goes well, Sunday will involve the application of some hardware, affixing of a boom, the tuning of some rigging and, dare we wish, a sail.
Eric

Bud Ricketts Making Robands

2006-05-30T21:40:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since a posting, what with the Mistral crew busy putting the final touches on the mast and what not. We took a time out the other day to catch Bud Ricketts making robands to afix the sail on the mast of the Dick Tolmie.

Mistral Nearly Gets Her Name in the Paper

2006-03-02T08:32:00.000-08:00

A sidewalk artist plies her trade in Port Townsend, subject of a Seattle Times travel article in which Mistral gets a glancing mention as one of several PT places where the author has slept over the years.

Calling All Volunteers

2006-02-15T22:32:00.000-08:00

We’ve said it before and we’ll gladly say it again: Mistral is an experiment in community curation, which is to say it takes a village to hoist a halyard and do the list of tasks that rests on the official Mistral Palm Pilot Task List. Here’s the list, with comments.

Varnish toilet seat – as wooden toilet seats, this baby's state of the art. Here's your chance to try your hand at some serious curatin' where it matters most.
Find and install lamp shades – the boat has bare bulbs now and needs the warm glow of diffused light.
Overhaul the winches - Thunderbird foredeck master Suzy B. has offered to lend a hand at this and will give a tutorial should you want to learn the craft.
Chase bow leak – challenging work. There’s a slow trickle coming from the port bow.
Overhaul sink/bilge plumbing -- there’s some old pipes there but it could be interesting, not to mention very helpful if that bow leak turns into a gusher. It’s a few hours with some hunting for gaskets, most likely.
Connect head – it’s overhauled and just needs the lines connected. One hour. Easier right now with the mast out of the way. The volunteer who completes both the seat and the head will win one overnight trip on the Mistral, complete with working plumbing.
Replace gas tank valves – not that hard a job, actually, though there will be a trip or two to Fisheries or a plumbing store.
Countersink and replace teak plugs in cockpit – this could eat up some time.
Check battery levels – piece of cake.
Repaint interior ceiling – waitable.
Bottom paint – for the haulout.
Paint hull – see bottom paint.
Repack stuffing box – see paint hull.
Replace warped bulkhead veneer – possibly the lowest of priorities, unless that’s your bag.
Replace faucet -- a one-hour job, if I remember to bring the new faucet down.
Top off stove with alcohol – 10 minutes.
Clean ceiling of fo’c’s’le, hatch – an hour or two with some water, soap, bleach, not to mention some nearly instant gratification.
Clean cover – an hour with a brush and soap on a sunny day.
Change oil, plugs – an hour or two.
Replace elastics on cover – in progress. The trick is to set the elastics up with hooks.
Pictures – if you see us out on the water, we could use pictures under sail.
Sew cover – Paula, CWB seamstress, is being courted.
Refinish mast – we’re scraped and half sanded. Props to Martin, Dave and Kemp.
Strip and varnish hatch doors -- they’re mostly scraped and need some further work. A nice, self-contained project.

Before undertaking projects, please consult the Mistral steward, Eric Sorensen, at svwhim@yahoo.com or 206-799-9186. I thank you, and Mistral thanks you.

Volunteer hours count towards your free sailing time. As an added bonus, time spent sailing on Mistral is not deducted from your volunteer hours.

Key: D, in Shavings

2006-02-15T22:10:00.000-08:00

Center for Wooden Boats boatwright Heron Scott looks on as Dan Berube works out the changes to "Poor Wayfarin' Stranger" in an after hours pick and grin at the CWB shop. That's the Mistral mascot in the background, in front of the wood stove, obscured.

Quoth the Mistral Admiral: "It's a little like a Dairy Goat Journal butt shot."

2006-02-01T21:03:00.000-08:00

This is Mistral in her earliest incarnation, in the Blanchard boat yard shortly before completion in 1939. The picture has an honored place on the wall above the drill press in The Center for Wooden Boats shop. Kemp Jones, steward of the Center for Wooden Boats Thunderbird and celebrated Mistral driver, suggests we post a link to Steve Bunnell's excellent WoodenBoat article on Mistral designer Ben Seaborn. Here's an excerpt:
"In 1938 [Seaborn] designed a 26’ racer/cruiser (foreshadowing the Thunderbird?) of which the Blanchards built three. Seattle sailor Keith Fisken purchased one and was so impressed by the performance that he quickly ordered a second Seaborn boat, this time a 31’ vessel, he named Romp II. That boat proved to be the most successful race boat of Ben’s prewar designs.
Completed by the Blanchards in 1939 and considered very fast, Romp II didn’t really hit her stride until the late 1950s and 1960s when she was campaigned by Bill Baillargeon under the name of Mistral. The boat won overall in the 1966 and 1968 Swiftsure races - the smallest boat ever to have done so."

The Fastest Heat Gun on South Lake Union

2006-01-31T21:17:00.000-08:00

The Mistral mast, 40-plus feet of glorious scarfed spruce, was starting to look checked and discolored way back in April. Then came a summer of Mediterranean sun and a fall of monsoon rain, leaving sections of varnish ready to peel like sunburned skin. We pulled the mast Monday, put it in The Center for Wooden Boats spar shed and started removing some 35 feet of varnish, one...square...inch...at...a...time. It was painfully slow until Martin, above, and Dave, yes, in the sling, arrived. In three hours we had half the mast scraped. Another pitch like that and we'll be ready to sand, bleach, sand and, come slightly warmer weather, varnish.

Ardea herodias, North America's largest heron

2006-01-30T20:46:00.000-08:00

WoodenBoat editor Matt Murphy recently posted the following guest blog featuring this heron seen while working on the Mistral hatch.

"For nearly 30 days now the Pacific Northwest has faced one of the key features of living on the lee shore of the Pacific Ocean: rain. Often, the region's reputation for wet weather is misplaced; in the warmer half of the year, the climate is downright Mediterranean. But the winter rain gets even, with storm pulses coming in daily. Puddles are growing puddles. The ground is a gumbo, sliding off hillsides and dissolving trees of their moorings. On the waterfront, boat covers and spring lines are growing green with moss. Sailors, facing the eternal choice -- sail or work on the boat -- are defaulting indoors to refinish oars or strip varnish from a hatch. The stove in the work shop at Seattle's Center for Wooden Boats is on a steady diet of scraps. Foot traffic on the docks is so light that the resident heron sits for hours unfazed, using the pilot gig DAN as a perch. With so much water, boats and shore birds are all the more in their element."

From the Photo Archives

2006-01-29T22:56:00.000-08:00

Mistral takes a group of Sunday sailors out on Lake Union in July. Photo by Mistral Volunteer Martin Feldman. Artistic rendering by Vincent van Photoshop.

Casting off

2006-01-29T22:32:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the official blog of the sailing vessel Mistral, the classic Ben Seaborn sloop now residing at The Center for Wooden Boats. Stop by often, either here or at the Center, on Seattle's South Lake Union.